1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



188 



P. Young, Sharon, Wis., writes: This has been 

 an average season for bees in this section. The 

 order of the honey harvests last year is reversed 

 this year. This season we had but a moderate 

 crop of white clover, but a great deal of buckwheat. 

 The weather has been very moist, and warm during 

 the latter part of August and tirst of September, 

 consequently the honey was secreted very fast. 

 Last season we had an immense crop of white 

 clover, but the fall was cold and dry, and here, I 

 think, was the cause of the loss of so many bees 

 last winter. They had filled up the middle of the 

 hive with honey gathered from buckwheat and 

 smart-weed, then it came off cold, and this honey 

 being thin was not sealed, consequently it soured, 

 and it being in the middle of the hive they con- 

 sumed this first, which caused the dysentery. 

 Again, when we have a fall that is cold so early, I 

 shall extract the thin honey from the middle of 

 the hives, for it is better these combs be empty 

 than filled with such honey. I would advise every 

 bee master to provide himself with an extractor. 

 1 have a couple which I made myself, ivhich can't be 

 beat, and they did not cost $15 apiece either. 



P. S. Van Rensselaer, of Port Clinton, Ottawa 

 county, Ohio, writes : I am one of the put-off 

 kind of bee-keepers. My bees suffered last winter. 

 I lost ten swarms out of thirty-nine, and three 

 were very weak and the worms took them. I 

 tried to help them, but forgot them too much. I 

 sold four swarms, the balance gave me four hun- 

 dred and fifty pounds of box honey, four hundred 

 pounds slung, and three sets of the slung frames 

 are full of fall honey, to be used as required in 

 spring. 



F. McCulley, of Robersonville, Tenn., writes: 

 1 am at present teaching school, and all leisure 

 hours I hold converse with live and wide awake 

 opinions, such as " Langstroth," "Gallup," "Nov- 

 ice," and many others, through the medium of their 

 writings. This year I am only preparing to get 

 my apiary well fitted up ; before a man locates an 

 apiary, he ought to ascertain the most reliable 

 natural resources for bees. I have been favorably 

 impressed with this section. The selected site I 

 have made we have all early pasturage ; our prin- 

 cipal forage is poplar, clover and locust, but from 

 some cause our buckwheat does not seem to be very 

 inviting to bees. Next season I will try the virtue 

 of buckwheat. Our winters are very mild ; we 

 winter on summer stands. Now, my experience 

 has been a little of all, even to the old fashion 

 ' • bee-sting." I used a bee hat on the first occasion, 

 and then laid it aside. 



I have done some hiving, transferring, &c. I 

 have been quite fortunate for a novice. My modus 

 operandi of transferring was as good as any man's. 

 My plan is too tedious to attempt to elucidate ; I 

 will only advise the procuring of back numbers of 

 the Journal. My bees are in good condition. 

 Interest in bee culture and modern improvements 

 are being revived here ; yet bee culture, compara- 

 tively, is in its infancy. The best way to cultivate 

 bee interest is to circulate the Bee Journal, so 

 they can read from its pages real practical experi- 

 ments, made by our best apiarians, if it continue 



to record such experience. In concluding, I will 

 only state that my first experience has been chietly 

 reverses ; hope to gain by the fruits of this year. 

 I will advise all beginners to stamp on their ban- 

 ners, " Luck is a fool, Pluck is a hero." I wish 

 success to the Journal and all the bee keeping 

 fraternity. 



J. N. Walter, of Winchester, Tan Buren county, 

 Iowa, writes: In the fall of '72 I put in winter 

 quarters sixty-eight colonies, all in fine condition. 

 They all came through the winter except one. 

 After setting them out a month in March, I had but 

 thirty weak colonies living, death supposed to be 

 from cholera. With these thirty, and the extra 

 combs, I have increased to one hundred and two, 

 and extracted eight barrels of honey, but owing to 

 the imfavorableness of the fall, I fed back four 

 barrels, thus leaving but four barrels, with the 

 increase for the season's work. 



I extracted all the honey from them in Septem- 

 ber, with the determination not to allow them to 

 winter on a poor article of honey again. So by the 

 15th of September I commenced to feed them the 

 very best clover and buckwheat honey, equal parts 

 mixed. I would say right here that I think that pure 

 clover honey is unfit to winter bees successfully on, 

 from the fact that it contains too much acid. Mix- 

 ed honey I consider the best; better than either 

 separate, for bees to winter on. They are all in 

 winter quarters,, where the thermometer ranges 

 from twenty to forty degrees, with twenty pounds 

 of honey a piece. 



Wintering on the Scholtz Plan, 



Editor American Bee Journal: 



Dear Sir. — I miss your magazine this month. 

 Please send it, as I find no periodical out of the 

 many I take that gives the satisfaction your maga- 

 zine affords me. 



T wrote you about wintering my bees on the 

 Scholtz plan. I am trying it with forty-four 

 swarms. Am making very rigid observations of 

 the temperature inside and out, and all other con- 

 ditions affecting their well-being, and will make 

 you a report in the spring that may be of service 

 to your subscribers. 



Thus far I have been able to maintain a tempera- 

 ture inside the clamp of 40° Fahr. for the month of 

 November, and 39° for the month of December and 

 so much of January. The thermometer outside 

 has been 6° below zero, and the average for 

 the whole month of December was 18° Fahr., which 

 makes a very cold month. I ventilate freely and 

 prevent an accumulation of dampness. I took oil 

 the honey boards and stopped all bottom ventila- 

 tion. Yours truly, Chas D. Hibbard. 



Auburn, N. Y., Jan. 11th, 1878. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Experiences and Plans of a Chenoa Bee Keeper. 



In looking over the Bee Jonrnal I see the gen- 

 eral report is, "This is a poor season for bees — 

 many have made no swarms and very little surplus 

 honey — many will have to be fed this winter," &c, 

 &c. There are, however, a few exceptions to this 



